Rogue is already past the point of accepting any other answer. And killing him to enforce it would end us both.
“If she feeds on anything human—”
“She won’t.”
I study him. My Bloodguard, my brother, the wolf who hung in Thanatos’ magic while Viktor put three blades through my chest and still dragged himself upright to finish the fight.
He has never once lied to me.
“Conditions,” I say.
“Name them.”
“Hex drives the perimeter every forty-eight hours. You check in daily, voice, not text. If she puts teeth in one human, I will come myself. And I willnotcome alone.”
The last line lands where it’s meant to. I watch him absorb it. The brothers at this table will be the ones I’ll bring.
His own pack.
His own family.
Executioners for his mate.
He nods once. “Understood.”
“You better.” I grip his shoulder. “Because I’m not losing you, brother. Not to Valeria’s revenge. You’re my VP, and I’ll be damned if I let her destroy what we’ve built.”
Determination shifts across his face. “Seven days,” he confirms.
“Seven days.” I release him, and he turns to go.
“Rogue.”
He stops.
I don’t have words for what I actually want to say. I hope I’m wrong. I’d rather lose the argument than keep the promise. Two hundred years of watching him bleed for me has turned this into the hardest sentence I’ve spoken in decades.
None of it comes out, so instead I simply say, “Bring her back.”
Both of you.That’s what I mean. Charlotte, yes, but also the brother who’s stood at my right hand for two centuries. Whatever this week costs him, I need him walking out the other side of it still intact.
He knows.
“Yeah,” he says. “I will.”
Then, he’s gone.
The meeting breaks up, and the brothers disperse. I stand alone in Church with the scarred oak table still warm where my brothers sat.
A millennia I’ve survived by making hard decisions, choosing survival over sentiment.
This one might finally break something centuries couldn’t touch.
I head toward Sloane. Toward the Heart Bind burning bright and certain in my chest, the anchor that reminds me what all of this is for.
Seven days.
Either Charlotte learns control.
